Observing on New Year's Eve in Mendocino

I drove for my first time to Mendocino on New Year's Eve day... it was an amazing experience that even included some astro content (which is why I am posting to TAC...).

It was rainy most of the drive up, over The Bridge, through Marin and the cities, past the turnoff for Lake Sonoma, and into the Anderson Valley. This is a little known wine valley, compared to more famous Napa and Sonoma. But it is a beautiful place. We had lunch at the Sagebrush Saloon in Booneville, preparing for some wine tasting before the night's celebration. But during lunch I began wondering about my clothing, realizing I'd left the garment bag with the nights "duds" hanging in the closet back in San Jose! Asking the waitress if there was any place to shop nearby, she replied with friendly small town charm, saying "you're screwed" :-) Thus began my unexpected journey to Ukiah. This allowed me to drive out to the coast at Fort Bragg, and enjoy a bit more coast scenery, passing by the town of Mendocino, on my way to our final destination of Fensalden Inn, in Albion. No wineries that day :-(

The Fensalden Inn is on the old stagecoach route through the area, and the Inn itself was a stage stop. It is quaint, ecclectic and very picturesque (ducks, goats, birds, streams, cypress trees, rainbows over the ocean in the morning) Nice group of guests, from Geneva, Napa, Newport Beach, the bay area, I was even surprised to meet a woman there who was a year behind me in my high school in Los Angeles - a few drinks, and there were lots of stories to tell. But soon it was time to head out to dinner.

Dinner was at the Ledford House Restaurant. There was a four course french dinner, which included something called "salmon sorbet"... a word of advice, never, ever, ever, taste salmon sorbet. But the rest of the dinner was great. The wine was great, the champagne was too (it was late harvest reisling mixed with champagne). The party outside was also - - - somehow I think the outside activities are typical Mendocino!

And that's where the observing part of this report comes in. The sky was clear when I stepped outside. I looked up, tried to stabilize myself the best I could, and looked at all the double stars! Even Rigel and Betelgeuse appeared double (shoot, I couldn't even read the bill when it came)! Although I did not have a "GREEN LASER" with me (please, kill that thread!) I was able to give something of a sky tour to some of the less inebriated revellers. Well, we all had a great time. Fortunately, the B&B was a very short distance - I could have (and perhaps should have) walked back...

Thanks to all who made recommendations for where to go, what to do, on the trip. I finally got to drive past the turnoff for Lake Sonoma - and if I were going there to observe, I'd definitely head up into the Anderson Valley during the day (the late harvest Reisling and Gurwurtz are awesome!)... maybe even put on a few more miles and enjoy the afternoon on the Mendocino Coast... in fact, the relative closeness of the valley and that gorgeous coast to Lake Sonoma make it a great combined observing/tourism area...

Happy New Year to all...

Treasue Hunts and TGOs

We had a great turnout at Coe last night for the end of year pot luck star party. There was way too much food, as usual when people do a pot luck. Chocolate torte, pork rinds, prawns, homemade Cajun gumbo, KFC, veggie platters, bottles of wine, all sorts of good eats. Thanks for Joe Bob for the Fosters, and Steve -newcomer and transplant from TACiego, for being aware of the old TAC traditions (you can bring the Fosters next time). Thanks to everyone for participating. The perimeter of the lot was full by sundown, temps were mild, almost spring-like. Skies were quite clear, and the roughly two dozen observers were at their scopes enjoying themselves. We did have a visit from CSAA, as one observer had locked keys in car - the driver was promised free food upon arrival, and did indeed make it up the windy road in what to my experience with AAA was record time. Interesting to see how quickly a car can be broken into!

Richard Navarrete and I were using our 18" Obsessions to hunt objects on the Herschell 400-II list. A list of objects observed are at the end of this report - they were mostly in lower Cetus and Camelopardalis. Open clusters and galaxies, some were very challenging, leading us to speculate that the transparency was poor - as the clear sky clocks had predicted. The CSCs definitely were incorrect regarding the cloud cover, and especially humidity - both forecast as ugly, but turned out to be non-issues. What was an issue was a stiff breeze that started a few hours after dark, and kept up until (and not surprisingly) we had finished tearing down our scopes.

There were a few visitors during the night, one being Stacy Jo's mom, here from Colorado Springs. Nice woman who was enjoying seeing her daughter out with friends, and taking in the outstanding sunset. Another was a park volunteer, Lisa, who partook in the pot luck and had fun picking out some of the dim galaxies in my scope. After years of people asking about finding objects by star-hopping vs using go-to, Lisa in two words captured what the fun is in star-hopping. She referred to it as a treasure hunt. That was it! It is the kid part in a lot of us, the challenge and fun. I'm sure even die-hard go-to telescope users remember that kind of fun.

Many of the objects on the list were difficult. Some of the galaxies were nothing more than mere haze, some, surprisingly large - but almost not there. The wind would blow the scope off the object while we were at the computer, confirming position. I began thinking of these as Transient Galactic Objects (TGO - pronounced like the sandwich shop chain). They'd be there, then they'd be gone. TGOs are frustrating, and usually weather dependant. The wind created many TGOs and finally, put an end to the evening for several observers.

Finished by observing some eye-candy. M42, NGC1980, the big bright M-opens, all spectacular. It is easy to see why we drive to Coe and skies even darker still, comparing last night's views to those in town, at MB, or Houge.

And, as expected, as soon as the scopes were in our vehicles, someone said "hey... the wind's died down"...

And it had. I hope the mass sacrifice served well for those who remained. It was a fun night, good food, good crowd of friendly folks, other than wind among the best conditions I've seen for a December in many years. A good way to end the deep sky observing year.

I get to be the first to say, on to a great 2005...

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Open Cluster
NGC 2253
Other description: Open cluster.
Constellation: Cam

Open Cluster
NGC 2192
Constellation: Aur
Magnitude: 11.0
Size: 6.0'

NGC991
Magnitude: 12.4
Size: 2.7' x 2.4'

Galaxy
NGC 1045
Constellation: Cet
Magnitude: 13.0
Size: 0.7' x 0.4'

Galaxy
NGC 1073
Constellation: Cet
Magnitude: 11.0
Size: 5.0' x 4.6'

Galaxy
NGC 1114
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 13.0
Size: 2.0' x 0.8'

Galaxy
NGC 1162
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 13.0
Size: 0.5' x 0.4'

Elliptical Galaxy
NGC1172
Magnitude: 12.7
Size: 2.3' x 1.8'

Galaxy
NGC 1187
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 11.0
Size: 6.0' x 4.0'

Galaxy
NGC 1199
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 11.5
Size: 0.8' x 0.6'

Galaxy
NGC 1209
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 11.4
Size: 1.0' x 0.5'